


Divisions

by unofficialsherlockian



Category: Elementary (TV), Mary Russell - Laurie R. King, Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (Downey films), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle, multi-verse I probably forgot some
Genre: Choices, not so much a story as an examination of story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-19 17:14:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7370536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unofficialsherlockian/pseuds/unofficialsherlockian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On one end, he is Sherlock. On another, he is Holmes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Divisions

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story, in a way, of Sherlock Holmes.  
> But it's also an examination of how the story of Sherlock Holmes works.   
> More at the end by way of explanation.

Sometimes he hates his family. Other times he loves them. No matter what, they are something to be escaped. He and Mycroft are rivals.

Once, when he is 10, he meets an actor, named Alistair. The two are fast friends.

Sometimes he goes to Cambridge, sometimes he is at Oxford. Either way, he meets Victor Trevor. Sometimes Trevor's dog bites him and it's serious. Other times, it isn't.  
Sometimes, Sherlock Holmes finds drugs in uni. Sometimes he doesn't.  
Sometimes, Victor kills himself before Sherlock Holmes leaves uni after two years. Sometimes Victor lives longer. Sometimes those two years of uni become four and he stays the course and graduates. Once, there's a prat name Sebastian, of whom Sherlock Holmes isn't a fan.   
Sometimes, when Victor lives past uni, they stay in sporadic contact. Sometimes they don't. Often, Victor dies later, whichever path of contact the two have.

There are plenty of paths where Sherlock Holmes' years before the age of 28 are marked with copious drug abuse, occasionally overdoses. There are times where he is sent to rehab; there are times when he cannot be sent to rehab.  
Sometimes there are paths where he studies in America. Once, he solves a case and helps Mrs Hudson out of trouble.  
No matter what the case, every path has a Ms/Mrs Hudson, who is kind beyond measure, and always more than he thinks he deserves.  
Sherlock Holmes always meets a man named G Lestrade.

He thinks sometimes about the paths on which the Inspector did not take the advice of the mad consultant in his 20s and decides he doesn't want to consider that path.

 

In every universe, J Watson is introduced to Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes Watson is John, sometimes Watson is Watson. Sometimes, he is a she and Watson is Joan Watson. 

Sometimes, Sherlock Holmes teaches Watson about detection and deduction. There are paths where he plays the violin well, angrily to his moods, softly to sooth Watson. Sometimes he cannot play worth a damn. He is often skilled at boxing, martial arts, fencing...fighting.  
But there is a path where Watson teaches him how to box and he is poor at it.

Always, the two are taken on a long journey. Sometimes they bring down Jack the Ripper. Sometimes they fail at bringing him down. There are times when they tackle suicide bombers in 2010 London, smoke out crazed accomplices in 2012 New York City. Sometimes he's pushing a man named Moriarty off a clock tower. Often he saves the queen. Sometimes he dates an Irene Adler, always they are rivals, often merely friends.

There is almost always a Moriarty. On one side, Moriarty is a man. Sometimes a professor, sometimes a woman. Sometimes Sherlock Holmes loves Moriarty. Most of the time, he does not.   
There are paths on which he and Moriarty's differences are settled atop a waterfall, once a tall building. Once in a hospital room, with Watson's aid. Once in Sherlock Holmes' mind, where he and Watson kick the bastard off the falls together.  
Sometimes, there are paths where he would have leapt from the height after Moriarty. Some universe in which he didn't send "LAZARUS" to Mycroft, and really died on the pavement below. Where he didn't have a way out of breathing in the falls and had a watery grave with his enemy. There's probably, he imagines, a time where the gun man at the top of the falls got him as he climbed up. There's probably a time where he decided his years of wandering and hiatus where how it had to be and never came home.

There are paths on which J Watson stays with him, no matter what. There are times when Watson dates, is married, leaves in a stormy rage. There are probably times where Watson would not come back, but Sherlock Holmes is only aware of the ones where Watson is always with him, always his friend.

There are times when he battles the likes of Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde. There was a time when London was seemingly under attack by sea creatures and dinosaurs. He and Watson faced it together as always.

Sometimes he retires. Sometimes he is a spy. There's a path where he takes the hand of a wonderful woman named Russell and she and him have years of marriage and partnership. Sometimes Watson retires with him. Sometimes, Watson dies first. Those paths are the worst of them.

There is a path, unexplored but for in his mind, where he takes Watson's hand in his own, and kisses Watson. His friend his partner. The person he loves. There is a path where he feels more than platonic and that will become a reality.

There is a path where Sherlock is born male. Another where he is born female. In both, Sherlock Holmes is Sherlock Holmes and commands authority by simply being him.

Sometimes it is the late 1930s. World wars, telephones, cars. Sometimes it is the twenty first century. Cabs, mobile phones, internet, CCtvs. United States. A bigger louder world. Most times, it's 1895, in fact, it's always somehow 1895. The gas lamps and Baker Street remain in place, the fog, the horses, the crackling fireplace. The griminess of the streets and everything that goes with it.

On one side of the world, on one end of the pattern, he is Sherlock. On another, he is Holmes. Always, he is Sherlock Holmes.

**Author's Note:**

> As you do at 4 am, I got some weird ideas for a story along these lines. As I know Sherlock Holmes and his lore the best, I wanted to explain, in a weird way, how we tell stories about Sherlock Holmes.  
> There is so much argument into which is better. My voice in it is that they are all good. They are all Sherlock Holmes. But the point of this is more than that.  
> When taking into consideration what to write when you write Sherlock Holmes, you make certain choices with the lore. Often, those choices have been made before. A series of different worlds/universes created by making the choice to go one way with the story or another. Even if they follow one way, the author can choose at another juncture to make a new route. And that's where Holmes gets fun. Because in every story, there is some new decision made. Which is why I've seen and read every Holmes that I can get my hands on. For many people it's all the same, which is the comfort. But it's also always new, which is the attraction.  
> I think it's important with stories to plan ahead very far. If your character chooses x path instead of y where will it take him. And it's the same in life, to reflect back on what choices you've made led to what in your life.  
> It's all connected, in the end, all makes up one big story. And that's kind of what this is about.


End file.
